Wisconsin 101

French Cartography in the Great Lakes

French mariners and explorers using the Le Maire Sundial Compass depended on both their own specialized navigational expertise and maps produced by French cartographers. Many such maps were created based on explorer accounts of the navigable waterways between the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi…

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December 21, 2016

Wausau / Industry / Related Stories / Marathon County / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / Society & Religion / Region 4 - Center / Science & Medicine / Employers Mutual Audiometer

The 1911 Workman’s Compensation Act and the Birth of an Industry

Wisconsin passed the nation’s first constitutionally upheld worker’s compensation law in 1911. It is one of the great successes of Progressive-era social legislation and a triumph of the Wisconsin Idea.1Previously, American workers toiling in industrialized workplaces had often faced the threat of…

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November 24, 2016

Health & Medicine / Education / Related Stories / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / 1945-1965 / Science & Medicine / Employers Mutual Audiometer

Promoting Workplace Safety

For an insurance company like Employers Mutual, it made sense to try to promote safety in the workplace. Reducing the number of industrial accidents would naturally lead to less money lost to claims. But Employers Mutual was also very adept at translating its…

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November 24, 2016

Health & Medicine / Science & Technology / Related Stories / Manufacturing & Trade / 1945-1965 / Science & Medicine / Employers Mutual Audiometer

Preventing Hearing Loss

In 1953, Wisconsin added occupational hearing loss to the list of claimable conditions under workers compensation. Employers Mutual of Wausau quickly created a program that would make the company an industry leader in hearing loss prevention. Creating a hearing loss prevention program not only…

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November 24, 2016

Dairy Industry / Health & Medicine / Industry / Food & Cooking / Related Stories / Everyday Life / 1877-1900 / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / Science & Medicine / Horlick's Malted Milk

Malted Milk and Infant Nutrition

Although known today mostly as a flavoring for milk shakes and chocolate-covered malt balls, malted milk made its first appearance in the 1880s as a substitute for human breast milk. At that time, breastfeeding babies began to lose its appeal among both…

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October 3, 2016

Racine / Dairy Industry / Health & Medicine / Food & Cooking / Industry / Related Stories / Racine County / 1848-1877 / 1877-1900 / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / Science & Medicine / Region 8 - South East / Horlick's Malted Milk

Horlick’s Malted Milk Company

Founded in 1873, under the name “J & W Horlick Company,” the Horlick’s Malted Milk Company was the creation of brothers William and James Horlick. The company specialized in producing malted milk as a nutritional supplement in a variety of forms: from…

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October 1, 2016